Wet Wet Wet: 'Too Many People'

Wet Wet Wet. Blimey, it's been a while since we've heard that name. Scotland's finest pop-crooners that have a bad habit of rudely occupying the top of the charts and boosting Hugh Grant rom-coms simultaneously are back with a brand new single. It's taken from their first proper album in ten years and should see Wetters (is that the correct term for a fan?) all around the country getting a wee bit giddy. However, for everybody else this is business as usual from a group whose personal lives have always been far more exciting than their tunes.

Wet Wet Wet split acrimoniously in 1997, with lead singer Marti Pellow spiralling into trouble after hitting Class A drugs and drummer Tommy Cunnigham storming off over arguments about royalties. It sounds like a chapter from the Life and Times of Pete Doherty and The Libertines rather than the backstory to a bunch of Magic radio soft-rockers. Unfortunately any tensions are kept under the surface on this drab pop-flop. It's got 'funky' Jamiroquai horns, Pellow's started singing like Mick Hucknall and the dance backbeat is grey and wrinkly rather than thumping. One for die-hard fans only.